Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Hands-On - Combat, Crafting, Dying, and Leveling Up

In days of old when knights were bold, elves with pointy sticks would totally beat up on a bunch of skeletons. You may have seen online games that take place in high-fantasy worlds, but recently, these games have become much more lenient on players, so that exploring, fighting, and even falling in battle has relatively minor consequences. Not since EverQuest of 1999 (a game that was infamously punishing back then and was clearly one of the main reasons why newer games got easier) has a new massively multiplayer game tried to offer a well-thought-out, but purposely steep, challenge. Not until recently, anyway, since some of the original designers of that game have set up shop at Sigil Games in sunny Carlsbad, California, to develop what former EverQuest designer and current Sigil CEO Brad McQuaid describes as "the spiritual successor to EverQuest." We recently had a chance to see more of the game in action, as well as to try it out for ourselves.

We began our hands-off tour of the game by visiting several areas on the continent of Thestra--one of the game's three landmasses, and the home of the game's most recognizable species of high fantasy--the medieval, European kind, with elves, dwarves, halflings, and the aforementioned knights that ride mighty steeds and charge into battle against kobolds, evil wizards, and, of course, the skeletons.

Yes, even the slightest halfling adventurer will ride tall in the saddle, since Vanguard will offer many different "vehicles" to navigate the game's sprawling world. McQuaid estimates that most adventurers will be able to afford their first horse at the tender experience level of 10 (like in any role-playing game, you'll gain experience points, and eventually levels, from fighting monsters and completing quests). Considering that the game will launch with an EverQuest-like maximum level cap of 50, most players will have access to speedy transport for the majority of their careers. This includes, but isn't limited to, animal mounts (such as several species of horses including old, gray mares and warhorses in full-metal barding, as well as more fantastical flying creatures), which are already in the game and work as fully controllable, speed-enhancing rides. The game will also let you travel the seas (such as the wide, wide oceans that separate the game's three landmasses) by either huge charter boats that regularly set sail or in your own crafted boat, which can be built by carpenters and smiths.

From what we understand, Vanguard will have a complex and deep item crafting system that will let you not only forge simple weapons and armor, but also build and furnish a house for your character. Coexecutive producer Jeff Butler points out that unlike in other games, housing "won't be a matter of entitlement but, instead, something obtained at great cost." Butler walked us through the high elves' starting village, whose simple wooden houses resembled the sort that players will build--from cramped hovels to duplex shops with hired merchants selling goods on the ground floor to full-on player-owned inns. Enterprising groups of experienced players (who will have the option to form a player "guild," which persists even after everyone has stopped playing for the night) will be able to build their very own villages by situating their own shops and inns next to each other.

Butler was quick to point out, however, that the game will have many checks and balances to ensure that the game doesn't turn into an unfair land rush where wealthy players control the most real estate. For example, all housing will require maintenance fees--the bigger the dwelling (and the higher the owner is in level), the more it'll cost. More importantly, players will probably be able to own only one property at a time. McQuaid suggests that once they've explored much of what a continent has to offer, veteran players will probably want to pick up stakes and relocate to a new base of operations in another part of the world.

Both executive producers are adamant about exploration in the game. Vanguard will offer a truly massive and virtually seamless world to explore (rather than broken up into discrete "zones," which would require the game to load each time you travel), where dragons flying off in the distance can make their way directly to you. And although McQuaid suggests that there may be a few instances in which the game will let players travel instantly by way of "teleport," such as for when players seek to quickly rendezvous with their friends, by and large, there is otherwise no instantaneous travel planned for the game at this time--no "gate" spells to return you home and no magical spires scattered throughout the world. According to McQuaid, the idea is to "encourage meaningful travel and adventure along the way."

You're in Their World Now

This is also why Vanguard's design and production groups are in the process of creating a world where more-challenging content is being placed in concentric circles radiating outward from the game's starting areas, with scattered outposts along the way. Outposts will be areas that will let you "bind" your character (so that you'll reappear there if you fall in battle) and may take the form of bustling towns or remote campfires. Your mounts, however, will be equipped with saddlebags that can carry extra equipment with you, even away from town and into the wild. McQuaid suggests that items will be crucial to sound battle plans and that it won't be uncommon to have experienced adventurers carry one or more entirely separate sets of armor and weapons by using their steeds as "mobile banks," rather than constantly running back and forth to their nearest town to unequip and reequip themselves for the next round of monster hunting.

We had a chance to do some low-level hunting and quest-solving of our own with new characters on the continent of Thestra, a green and mountainous land that will occasionally fall prey to the game's impressive weather effects, which allow for rain and snowstorms. We were able to choose new characters from a selection of fantasy races and professions--such as clerics, rangers, paladins, and dread knights--right from the start, like in the original EverQuest, rather than choosing a basic profession that would change later, such as in Dark Age of Camelot or EverQuest II. The full list of character classes that will be available at launch hasn't been finalized, but from what we can tell, Sigil's designers are making sure to revive some of their personal favorites from EverQuest, while adding some new professions such as the pacifying psionicist.

Starting out in a new area in Thestra, players currently begin staring directly at a group of "trainer" characters, which can teach your character new abilities after you gain some experience levels. There are also a handful of quest-giving characters (indicated by an icon that hovers over their heads, like in World of Warcraft), who will give you simple quests (at least, in the beginning), such as delivering messages to key characters. Starting a conversation with other computer-controlled, non-player characters will open up a dialog box that clearly displays their disposition toward your character as part of the game's diplomacy system, which seems like an enhanced version of EverQuest's "faction standing" system (that game let you slaughter specific monsters or complete specific quests to get more-favorable reactions from key NPCs).

The game's combat system seems intuitive, though you'll eventually gain a huge number of skills and abilities that will be logged in the game's "journal," an all-in-one menu that will also include your character's current quests and crafting skills. At this point in the game's beta-development cycle, dread knights are quickly able to learn kick attacks and additional "taunt" attacks that draw attention to them (and away from vulnerable clerics and wizards), as well as special parrying abilities that set up damaging counterattacks and "rescue" abilities that let them draw attention away from vulnerable party members.

While standard abilities like attacking and kicking are displayed as icons in a bank of hotkey shortcuts, special abilities such as parry and rescue appear in a series of "reaction" icons, which appear just above your hotkeys. These special-icon areas will light up only when an appropriate opportunity arises, and being knowledgeable enough and fast enough to capitalize on these opportunities will separate good players from great ones. McQuaid describes the game's real-time attack-and-counter combat system as "sort of a real-time version of Magic: The Gathering." For example, heavy fighters can use positional attacks to open up opportunities for ranger characters to deliver flanking attacks; highly perceptive characters will be able to detect invisible monsters sneaking around; and sorcerers will have a chance to recognize incoming magic spells and cast counterspells in reaction. Throughout battle (as well as throughout your adventures, both aboveground and in dungeons), you'll be treated to the game's dynamic soundtrack, which will change depending on where you are, whether you're in battle or not, and how a battle is going. Our combat experience pitted us against lowly country fauna such as snakes and badgers, as well as against kobolds and mighty undead armies that completely slaughtered us.

Those who are used to playing online games where death is a minor setback may be in for a bit of a shock with Vanguard's death system, since it will reintroduce the concept of the dreaded "corpse run." That's right, when you die, you'll leave most of your items on your character's corpse--so dying at the bottom of a dungeon with no other friends around you will mean a dangerous and difficult expedition ahead. The game will have other features to make this process less frustrating (such as how items stored in your steed's saddlebags will not be lost and how you won't flat-out lose experience points, but you'll instead incur an experience debt), but the team is purposely putting corpse runs into the game to make the stakes much, much higher when venturing into dangerous territory. (Fortunately, like in the original EverQuest, you won't start leaving items on your corpse until level seven.)

Vanguard has all the makings of a complex, deep, and challenging fantasy game, and the fact that it won't hesitate to put a challenge in front of players will definitely help set it apart from other online games out there. The game is scheduled to launch later this year.